Legendary Ships

The 4 Legendary Ships in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag are located on the four corners of the map, and are extremely hard to destroy, although beating them means a reward of 20,000R per battle. Upgrading your ship to have at least elite armor, side cannons and rams are probably the most important for survival.

Exit Theatre Mode

Video: Taking on the La Dama Negra

One thing to remember is that these Legendaries cannot be boarded, which means they cannot be added to your fleet. Touching the hull of an elite ship with Edward results in a one-touch death.

If you are having trouble taking on Legendaries, you will have an easier time once you have the Elite Ship Upgrades. The Elite Ram, Elite Hull, Elite Swivel Gun, Elite Broadside Cannons and Elite Heavy Shot are the most useful.

Before reading this, read the Naval Combat Guide, which outlines the basic winning strategy for defeating strong enemies -- although it won't necessarily apply to all Legendary Ships.

The HMS Prince is similar to a man-'o-war ship but with greater firepower and armour. The Prince's main stratergy is to rain powerful mortar shots on the Jackdaw. Similar to other mortar attacks, you will see the area of effect, giving you a small window to avoid damage.

When you start a battle with this ship , the weather will be foggy and you cannot see The Prince at long distance (note : when lightning strike , it will reveal The Prince's location for a few seconds)

Try to move close and use the chain and ram strategy. Try to stay as close as possible so that it prevents the HMS Prince from using Mortar. The HMS Prince is the easiest Legendary, so it's a good idea to try and take it out first to get your feet wet.

The La Dama Negra is very similar to the HMS Prince in terms of its attack style with two key differences: unlike other ships' mortar attacks, it does not show the area of effect, and its sides are heavily armoured making them impenetrable. The only way to attack is to attack her rear.

One way to respond to the mortar attacks is try not to move towards it directly from a distance, as it will fire incredibly powerful mortar shots aiming for where your bow will be, based on current course. If you are circling the La Dama, slow down when you see mortars coming, as most of its attacks are adjusted for where you are speeding towards.

The best strategy against this ship is to approach from the rear, stay close and use heavy cannons while ramming where you can. Staying close will also mean reduced chance of it using mortar on the Jackdaw. Remember that her sides are heavily armored. Moving behind her will allow you to do normal damage.

La Dama Negra is the most fragile legendary ship exclude HMS Fearless and Royal Sovereign

This legendary battle is a fight against two ships, the HMS Fearless and Royal Sovereign. They both have lower HP than the rest of the Legendaries, but they will come at you by funneling you between them and firing devastating broadsides.

If you can sink one ship in the HMS Fearless and Royal Sovereign Legendary Ship battle, you can loot its share of the reward Reales: 10,000 floating in the water. Let the remaining ship kill you and you will be able to start the battle over again and keep the money each time.

The best strategy is to use chain shot and then ram. Once the enemy ship is pinned down, continue to use chain shot and ram, making sure the ship doesn't get too far away from you. You should try and always stay on the outside so that you're not caught between the two ships. If it does happen, make sure to use brace when your boat is getting fired at when you're between the two.

If you destroy one boat before the other, the remaining will employ a different strategy where it will set itself on fire and constantly ram you for massive damage. A good strategy, therefore, is to damage one ship's health to about 10% with the chain and ram strategy, then start using the same strategy on the other ship so that once you destroy one ship, you can finish the other one with one or two mortar shots or a ram.

HMS Fearless and Royal Sovereign can be considered as second-hardest legendaries ship

In terms of difficulty the El Impoluto is probably the hardest of the legendries. It packs a nasty surprise: a huge naval ram. This ram can take out an entire health bar with one hit, so avoid it at all costs.

The best strategy against it is to avoid the ram attack and smash her with heavy shots and broadsides. however, given its superior movability compared to the Jackdaw, it will speed away before swinging around firing an insanely powerful broadside followed by another ram attempt. Mortars should be used to interrupt its wide turns, which gives you time to reset. When it speeds away from you, hit it as it begins a turn and it will try and avoid your shot, slowly turning the other direction.

Do NOT try and ram El Impoluto on its side and accept the fact that it is far faster than the Jackdaw.

However, you can pull off a very careful ram attack to counter its own ramming run. As it approaches you to ram, turn towards it, accelerate, and send chain shots at it when it gets near. This will slow it enough, or stop it entirely, so that it cannot ram you. Use your ram to hit it to the left or right of its ram. From here it will maneuver wildly, sometimes reeling into the air to reposition. Hit it hard with heavy shots and swivels when it is in the middle of such a maneuver.

Another thing to watch out for is when it moves behind you, the best defense to deter it from ramming you is to let off a few fire barrels and a mortar shot to steer it away.

If you manage to beat all of the Legendary Ships, other than the large monetary rewards (don't forget to loot the packages for the money), the Jackdaw will be granted an the additional move: the Speed Ram Attack, where aiming forward and pressing X (PS) , A (Xbox) or W (PC) will allow the Jackdaw to dash for a moment for a ram with increased power.